While entertaining some visiting religious types who have come to watch a spatial event, it is discovered that there is a Suliban on board the Enterprise with a mission, and one of Archer's crew claims to have been sent back in time to deal with the intruder.

There's a lot that's good about this episode but also a fair few things that are bad, hence it ending up with three rather than four stars. The return of the Suliban is good, as the use of a recurring enemy with far more advanced technology than the Enterprise is a tasty trick that works well. Throwing Archer and a group of unwitting crew members into the middle of a war they can't even hope to comprehend is also good fun, and another time when long-term Trek viewers will be more in the know than the characters. Likewise, the undecided nature of who is on whose side is a neat little twist in the tail. Could it be the Suliban or could it be the person who looks human?

What I dislike is the lack of closure. This is not The X-Files, and at the end we don't get a 'to be continued', so I assume this is how it's meant to finish, on a slightly portentous shot of the door to crewman Daniels' quarters. We're all none the wiser as to what was happening, why, and who was working for the good of the Enterprise. That last point at least should be dealt with and, while I appreciate the construction of a story arc, having an episode that doesn't really work at all in isolation is a strange idea for a series so relatively young.

There are some good ideas here that are clearly going to be built on in the future, but at the moment it's very frustrating that we don't know what's going on. On top of that, the sub-plot featuring the religious sect is dull and tedious, and however nice the leader might be and however much it may allow Dr Phlox to obtain vital information, it's still a poor plot and could have made room for more of this story.

***

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